Beibei Shi

About

Beibei Shi is a Principal Research Program Manager at Microsoft Research Asia, where she leads the MSRA StarTrack Scholars Program and oversees partnerships in Hong Kong SAR. She is passionate about harnessing collaboration to accelerate scientific discovery and drive impactful innovation.

Since joining MSRA in 2017, Beibei Shi has initiated and led multiple open collaborative research themes in close partnership with internal research teams. She worked with the systems team to build the AI Research and Education Platform (AIER) and collaborated with the networking team to launch OpenNetLab—both of which have contributed to Microsoft’s product development and advanced fundamental research in their respective domains.

In recent years, her work has centered on interdisciplinary collaboration. Since 2020, she has co-led the research theme “Computing for Carbon Negative” with the machine learning team, supporting Microsoft’s 2030 sustainability goals and enriching Microsoft China’s sustainability narrative. She is currently driving collaborations in Societal AI with the Societal Computing team, and in Medical Education and Research with the Media Foundation and Hong Kong teams. She believes the value of these initiatives lies not only in advancing frontier research, but also in fostering a vibrant academic–industry community that delivers meaningful societal impact.

Beibei Shi began her career at IBM Research – China in 2009, after earning her master’s degree in Environmental Science from China Agricultural University. There, she worked as a researcher at the intersection of environmental science and computing. She later transitioned to IBM China’s University Partnership Department as a Program Manager, where she co-designed and led the Green Horizon Plan, an industry–academia research initiative that made significant contributions to technological innovation in air pollution control.